Is Desalination The Answer To Texas' Long-Term Water Needs?

Texas cities will likely have to start relying on several sources for their drinking water.

Chris Eudaily
/ TPR News

Texas Matters: Texas has enjoyed cheap water for years, but it may not be that way for much longer as the days of relying on a single source for water are coming to a close. Desalinating salt water is expensive, but could help the state cope with water shortages. Also on this show: Lesser prairie chicken protection, fracking and cancer in Flower Mound, Texas.

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The future landscape of water in Texas

How can Texas be short on water when we have an entire coastline with access to the stuff? All we need to do it set up some desalination plants and start pumping. Problem solved, right? Well, no.

Desalinated water is much more expensive than the water Texans are accustomed to having access to.

But as Texas is seeing the growing scarcity of fresh water – and more reservoirs are going dry and aquifer levels are dropping and communities are going on mandatory water restrictions – desal, despite that expense, is looking more and more attractive.

"Whether you believe in global warming or don't believe in global warming, or it's manmade or it's not manmade, all that's kind of irrelevant at this point. We do know that it's getting warmer and it's been getting drier here in Texas over the last several years and near as we can tell long term that trend doesn't appear to be changing so we're going to have to look at water in a different way. We've enjoyed very inexpensive water across the state for a long time and those days are probably past. Everyone, all communities, I think, are going to have to start looking at other options -- and that would include conservation, reuse and desalination -- as part of a water portfolio instead of just depending on one source."

Also in this episode of Texas Matters

That is one controversial chicken!

The lesser prairie chicken is now an officially threatened species and on May 1 new federal protections take effect set up to prevent the extinction of the native fowl.

But industry leaders are grousing that the protections will interfere with oil and gas drilling and the construction and operations of wind farms.

Scientists and environmentalists, on the other hand, are crowing just the opposite; they say the prairie chicken protections, which rely on voluntary compliance, are inadequate. And many are calling for full endangered-listing protections for the prairie chicken.

A "cancer cluster" is a term used by public health workers to define an outbreak of greater-than-expected number of cancer cases in an area. When there is the suspicion of a cancer cluster state health workers will do a study and look to see if the number of cancer cases are greater than what would be statistically understandable for that area.

That’s what happened in Flower Mound, Texas. The concern was that the fracking of the Barnet Shale in the vicinity was releasing benzene into the neighborhoods and there was an increase in the number of children diagnosed with leukemia and lymphoma.

The Texas Department of State Health Services conducted studies and declared there is no cancer cluster.

But a new re-examination of the study by an independent third party has a different conclusion: that there is a high probability that there is a cancer cluster and more health studies are needed, along with increased air quality monitoring and regulation of air pollution in the Barnett Shale.

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The Pedernales River runs 106 miles through the Hill Country before eventually joining the Colorado River at Lake Travis. Its catchment area—the land that drains into the river—touches 8 counties and covers more than 800,000 acres.

The basin provides habitat for numerous fish and wildlife, supports agricultural, ranching and hunting pursuits, and contributes 23% of the flow into Lake Travis, providing a critical source of drinking water for downstream users such as the City of Austin.

With water on the minds of many, the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program is a citywide, long-standing effort to maintain sustainable water levels.

In April, the San Antonio city council will hear once again about the city's Aquifer Protection Program. It began around 2000, approved by voters to use 1/8th cent sales tax revenue to purchase land over the sensitive Recharge Zone in Bexar County.

In 2005 the program changed a little to include Medina and Uvalde Counties.

A study paid for by the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce details the impacts of water shortages on the city's future growth. Jobs, spending, migration are all affected drastically if the city continues to grow without making proper accommodations, argues the study.

San Antonio Water System officials are in talks to find a supply of water in addition to the Edwards Aquifer to meet growth demands over the next few decades.

The San Antonio Chamber of Commerce has joined the discussion with a new study, the Impact of Potential Water Shortages on San Antonio’s Economy, which illustrates the link between long-term water needs and San Antonio’s economy.

Texas Matters: A look at major issues from all over the state this week -- Tom DeLay is acquitted of money laundering, the American Bar Association reviews the states system of capital punishment, alleged scandal with the dunes sagebrush lizard and a water tug-of-war between the Highland Lakes and Matagorda Bay.